The sixth fellowship of the VALOR program surpassed our halfway mark with a visit to the Northern Neck of Virginia in what turned out being some delightful weather for the majority of our four day visit.
I enjoy taking some time after each VALOR session to recall each visit and capture a few nuggets from each day that stood out or were a favorite. That task proved very difficult following our Northern Neck experience. All of our visits, tours, and one-on-one conversations seemed to hit the nail on the head and resonate with me in some way.
Our first visit, when we arrived in Warsaw, was to the Healthy Harvest Food Bank. The front of their building certainly was deceiving, as I was expecting to tour another typical food bank, doing its important work directly serving the needs of the six counties in its service area with over 1.6 million meals distributed in their last fiscal year. If the size and scale of this food bank system weren’t enough I was blown away with the diversity as we toured their new Aquaponics Education and Production Center that had just opened! You read that correctly, a food bank had invested in an aquaponics facility to help supply its customers with nutritious food in a more consistent manner. As we walked through the facility I kept wondering “how was this large of an undertaking sold to this organizations board of directors over 5 years ago to be in place now?”
When this facility is at full capacity it will produce and harvest its own tilapia and micro-greens, amongst others, to distribute to its customers. Quite the unique undertaking and accomplishment. It was great to see a shining example of an organization thinking, and leaping, outside the box to find a solution to food insecurity and sustainability.
Parker Farms was our next, and final stop, for Wednesday afternoon. This seemingly small footprint building front opened their doors to our fellowship and opened our eyes to the wide produce world that they are involved in which includes, zucchini & yellow squash, cucumbers, sweet corn, green bell peppers, broccoli, eggplant and hard squash. Not all of these products are brought through their Oak Grove location in Virginia but this family-owned business has built quite a footprint, having contracts to source produce from as far as New York down to the tip of Florida and beyond – into Mexico and Honduras. Seeing this family operation, which started on the farming side of the business, take a larger piece of the pie in the food production chain was a great experience.
I’m sure my fellow VALOR classmates will join me in saying that we truly appreciated the opportunity to stay in the same accommodations throughout the entire trip, as the geography of the area allowed us to return to Reedville, our home base, for our four days in the area. We didn’t get to truly appreciate this location until the next morning when we arose to this view.
We did experience one small hiccup in our travels throughout the Northern Neck. Weather patterns out on the Atlantic caused a small craft advisory to be called on Thursday for the Chesapeake Bay and we were unable to visit Tangier Island as originally intended. That was okay, though, because my fellows and I were able to take full advantage of our new-found down time to have additional deeper conversations about this session, and prior sessions, throughout the day.
This additional time also allowed us to move forward some of our plans and have one of my most favorite moments in the entire trip which was a deep discussion on meaningful relationships, our network, and our impact on others.
Dinner on Thursday certainly didn’t disappoint. Many thanks to Colonial Farm Credit for hosting our group for dinner at the Northern Neck Farm Museum. Even while being 3+ hours away from home it was great to still see representations of home when I caught a glimpse of some familiar signage.
Fridays tours were all about the water!
Omega Protein was our first stop of the day, learning about the harvesting and processing of menhaden fish and how they are used to produce Omega 3 fatty acids, and other similar products. Definitely a stinky experience, but one that was absolutely eye-opening to the scale and efficiency that is completed.
We went from a LARGE scale operation at Omega Protein to another side of the aquaculture world in the Chesapeake Bay to two different oyster houses in the afternoon. Patrick, Farm Manager, from Rappahannock Oyster welcomed us to their farming operation to gain perspective on their style of farming, raising oysters from birth before eventually “planting” oyster beds across specific areas of the bay, and its estuaries, to gain specific taste profiles from exposure to specific amounts of salt water. It was fascinating to see the complexity, science and also art that was performed to produce this unique product of the area that is shipped all across the globe, from right there in lil ‘ole Rappahannock on the Chesapeake Bay.
A contrasting style of production with oysters was discussed on our next stop, at Kellum Seafood, which has grown its business and reputation on the natural harvest of wild oysters by buying them right off the dock from Waterman each day. Farmers in the Shenandoah Valley think that it’s a bit like war when rented farmland becomes available, but that appears to not shake a stick at the utilization of oyster beds in and around the Chesapeake Bay. All oyster bed spaces are leased, year after year, and competition is fierce when a new bed becomes available for Waterman to harvest.
Our time together on these sessions always seems to go by so fast, and this session was no different. Before we realized it we had awoken to the last day of our trip, and only one more stop. Many thanks goes out to the Haynie family for their hospitality and open arms to discuss their family history, and struggles, as they have operated and grown their families farming operation for several generations based out of the Northern Neck before recently expanding it across states to include rice farms and a rice mill in Arkansas. The Haynie’s are a testament to the power of will and passion through adversity as their family has continued to thrive even though they have faced many hurdles within their lifetime.
When went back and thought through my time in the Northern Neck I was most impressed with the food spread. If my recollection serves me correctly, we had the opportunity to eat fresh crab cakes and other seafood for 4-5 straight lunch and dinner meals. That is going to be hard to top.
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